In memory of:
Darren McGavin
(The “Old Man” who also played the title character on the short-lived but brilliant Kolchak: The Night Stalker)
May 7th, 1922 – February 25th, 2006
“You used up all the glue—on purpose!”
Today the Christmas film review is one that I feel is safe to assume 9 out of 10 of you reading this may have seen. It is came out in 1983 but that is not the real reason most people have seen it. I say this is because for as long as I can remember, every Christmas, TNT puts on a 24-hour marathon of A Christmas Story. That being said, there is no real reason for me to do a review of this film—even the trailer gives away practically every memorable and favorite moment of the film. However, I still want to do a review because I really like this movie and I figured, why the hell not?
For those of you, who know the plot and what have you, feel free to skip down to my opinions of the film.
The film is a period piece taking place in the 1940’s. It focuses on a nine-year-old boy named Ralphie who only wants an air rifle for Christmas. The piece follows the family dynamics and childhood troubles of a typical kid growing up in the 1940’s around Christmas time.
Everyone has their favorite scene or clip: the lamp, the soap, the fight, the dogs, Santa, the flagpole, etc. In addition, everyone has their favorite quotes from it—most people and quote the entire movies dialogue, verbatim and have the timing down pat.
There are several reasons why I love this film. One is that even before it was on TNT, we would rent and watch this every year and so it became a part of our traditions. My dad really loves this movie and saw it in theatres when it first came out. The reason he loves it so much is, even though he grew up in the 60’s and not the 40’s, the film reminded him of the happy times at Christmas that he had as a child. His Christmas’s were similar to the one in the film because they never had a lot of money growing up.
Though the film has not much really going on and there are, few messages there are some things to take away from the film. It is the little moments that you remember, sitting by the fire and\or TV with the dog and parents during the holidays—those are the things you remember most, those are the really important things. This film ends with one of these moments and though it is a straight up heartwarming comedy from the get-go, that last scene, could make someone cry.
The movie gets most of its value from nostalgia but there are not things wrong with it that I can pick out, even the kids are decent actors. The cinematography is also really good, The only thing I can pick out is that certain scenes it is obvious that the actors, usually the kids are having a very hard time not laughing, but I don’t really see that as something that takes away from the film.
Because of all this, the only reason to give this movie a bad review is if the person reviewing it simply does not like it. That being said this film no matter what at least warrants a 3 out of 5 but I give it a 5 out of 5.
Brad Jones (aka The Cinema Snob) has a really funny review of A Christmas Story in which he lovingly rifts on it. However, just to be polite, I warn you that anything that the trailer did not give away, his video does. It is worth watching however:
Who doesn't love this movie right? Thanks for stopping by Jake, I'm digging your site too!
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